WelFur approved by EU Commision

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WelFur is the first animal welfare-focused initiative ever to receive this seal of approval from the European Commission.

The research-based system WelFur for assessing the animal welfare of mink and fox farms has been included in the European Commission's database for "Self-Regulation" and "Co-Regulation" initiatives. It needs a comprehensive evaluation process to be highlighted in this database where the WelFur program has been assessed on a wide range of principles including stakeholder participation, transparency, reliability, feasibility and regulatory compliance. In the European Commission's database, WelFur is described, among other things, as "a knowledge-based, practical and reliable on-farm welfare assessment system that serves as a tool to monitor and improve animal welfare and with transparency can demonstrate good welfare-friendly management". WelFur is the first animal-welfare-focused initiative ever to achieve this recognition at the highest level.

Baltic Control® is proud to be the independent certification body that with its WelFur assessors since the beginning of 2017 has visited and assessed the 2,564 mink farms in Europe, which are enrolled in the WelFur welfare program.

‘It has been a fantastic journey we have been to together with the Department of Animal Science at Aarhus University. From the initial thoughts and visions to now, where almost all European mink breeders have signed up for WelFur, and our specially trained assessor team visits all registered breeders in the three important production seasons and thus contributes to securing the welfare of the European mink and fox farms' says WelFur responsible at Baltic Control® Gorm Djurhuus and Stephanie Christiansen.

From 2020, the three major auction houses: Kopenhagen Fur, Saga Furs and NAFA will only sell European WelFur-certified mink and fox furs. Almost all European mink farmers have therefore signed up for WelFur and by the end of 2018, Baltic Control® has completed 6,300 WelFur assessments of 2,564 mink farms.

Stephanie Christiansen

+45 91 23 01 92 (Mobil)
stc@balticcontrol.com

Cases

Jøren Ivar Brus Mikkelsen runs his herd of Forest Cattle from the National Park Mols Bjerge. Since 2014, he has been certified by Baltic Control® Certification and has an annual inspection to ensure that the herd meets the certification and the quality requirements that accompany it.

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”Since January 2009, Baltic Control® Certification has had the task of controlling the Danish pig herds. They are very serious and professional” says Asger Kjær Nielsen, Quality Manager for DANISH Product Standard at SEGES Knowledge Center for Pig Production

“Baltic Control has performed extremely well through a challenging task of assessing annually over 3000 fur farms all over Europe and even in other continents" states Jyrki Sura, Head of WelFur, Fur Europe. .

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